Cost Performance and Time 

By on

 

Cost and Performance in this project
are more important than time
Often us engineers get so bogged down in equations, using software, producing drawings and writing specifications that this becomes the sole focus.   Good engineering design needs to go beyond the technical and look at the full picture.   A good way to measure this is cost, performance and time.

Cost is an important aspect of any project, yet often only considered at a cursory level.  If two designs perform the same, but one costs less than it could be argued that the cheaper design is the better design.  Good engineering should always strive for cost effectiveness. 

Performance is the second measure.  Performance means ensuring the technical and specification requirements of the project are realised.   If something does not perform as expected (or worse not at all), then the engineering has not been up to scratch.   Luckily concentrating on performance is the natural habitat for most of us.

Time is the final measure.   All projects take time to design and things need to happen within a reasonable time frame.   While some projects are more time sensitive than other, all projects will (should) have some form of time constraint. 

 Putting it all together

Each project is different and the easiest way to visualise this is the engineering triangle (see illustration).  The requirements for any particular project are located within the triangle, the position being indicative of the relative importance of the cost, performance and time. Some projects will be more performance centric (a NASA space probe for example).  Others would be more cost centric (a lens for a disposable camera) or time critical (projects where a completion date has been publicly announced).

Knowing how cost, performance and time interrelate on a project should guide the engineering design.  The end result of considering these project measures is always a better engineered design.



Steven McFadyen's avatar Steven McFadyen

Steven has over twenty five years experience working on some of the largest construction projects. He has a deep technical understanding of electrical engineering and is keen to share this knowledge. About the author

myElectrical Engineering

comments powered by Disqus



Maxwell's Equations - Gauss's Electric Field Law

Gauss's Electrical law defines the relation between charge ("Positive" & "Negative") and electric field.  The law was initially formulated by Carl Friedrich...

Why is electricity so hard to understand?

It's been a busy few months on different projects or busy couple of decades depending on how I look at it. I can say that on the odd (frequent) occasion...

How D.C. to A.C. Inverters Work

Traditionally generation of electricity has involved rotating machines to produce alternating sinusoidal voltage and current (a.c. systems). With the development...

Occam's Razor

I was reminded of Occam's Razor while reading a book. It's quite a simple principal of logic which has stood the test of time and is accepted as central...

Post Editing Tips

If you at all familiar with programs like office and outlook, then adding and editing posts is pretty straightforward and intuitive.  However, there are...

9 power supply issues solved by using a UPS

Installation of a UPS can help in reducing problems due to issues with the power supply.  A lot of people relate this to nine key issues.  Depending on...

Surface Treatment – Ladders, Trays and Baskets

Steel ladders, trays and baskets form the backbone of cable containment systems. Often these items need some form of surface treatment to prevent corrosion...

Aluminium Windings - Dry Type Transformers

The other day I was talking to a colleague who is a building services consultant.  Despite regularly specifying dry-type/cast resin transformers he was...

Skin Tapping Input

Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets. A new technology created by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon ...

Magicians of Engineering

The other day I was reading 'Night of the New Magicians' by Mary Pope Osborn with my son.  The story is about a young boy and girl who travel back in time...

Have some knowledge to share

If you have some expert knowledge or experience, why not consider sharing this with our community.  

By writing an electrical note, you will be educating our users and at the same time promoting your expertise within the engineering community.

To get started and understand our policy, you can read our How to Write an Electrical Note